Mental health awareness is growing by the day and somethings which we misunderstood or even overlooked a couple of decades ago are now incredibly apparent. Mind UK states that 1 in 4 people in the UK suffers from some degree of mental health issue in any given week (and we might not even recognise it!) How are you supposed to know?
You don’t have to be diagnosed with a mental health condition in order to have one, and it isn’t always a super scary, uncontrollable, life-altering thing. Stress, mild anxiety or depression can be regular daily occurrences we overlook. Having suffered from diagnosed Anxiety Disorder and OCD from age 16 (a while ago 😉) I know that living with mental illness can be at times debilitating at times but it can be managed!. It all depends on you.
Yes, I likely will have to live with my conditions for the rest of my life, but no I don’t have to let it overtake or dictate my life.
With any mental health-related issue, you really need to want help. I reached a stage where I could no longer function in a single day and my anxious thoughts were keeping me from achieving what I wanted or being part of things. I was extremely frustrated by my own reluctance and it wasn’t until this stage I realised I would do anything to get it under control. I created the Discovery Journal in hopes it could help others who like myself want to get out of the grip of anxiety and stress.
So what does the Discovery Journal do that a plain notebook doesn't?
Keeping a journal is a proved method of reducing anxiety and is often recommended by mental health professionals and counsellors. However, for some keeping a journal can be a chore; after all, we are busy people, we are fixers; we want to know what the problem is and sort it. Trawling over a diary trying to decipher our inner thoughts sounds offputting. So I created a diary that gives you all the benefits of inner revelations while being quick, easy and to the point!
The Discovery Journal is a 100-page diary, handmade in the UK.
Available in multiple colours to suit every personality.
So whats so simple about the Discovery Journal?
Its a bullet journal! Instead of being full of empty pages, each entry is split into sections, you simply complete each one in your own time, when you have time!
As you complete each section you will acknowledge and identify causes, triggers and contributors to your stress and anxiety, you may have otherwise overlooked.
Each section was designed by pulling together all the techniques I had learnt myself and from friends on coping with anxiety (after all everyone is different!)
Each diary begins with instructions on how to take on every section and an explanation on their benefits.
Once you've got the hang of it, you'll never think of using a plain notebook again! (Because you'll never need to!)
So let's take a closer look at those sections now...
The Mood Calendar
So we begin with a yearly mood calendar.
I want to make this perfectly clear…You do not have to start the calendar on January 1st, this calendar is not year specific and instead can be started at any point and just followed on into the next year.
If you don’t want to write in your diary every day, this allows you to track your daily moods using a key you colour/mark yourself without having to commit to filling in a diary entry. By the end of the year, you can see a pattern of behaviour and backtrack to your good and bad days.
You can even make notes if you like!
Compartmentalise yourself! The joy of emotive words...
The first page of every entry begins which an emotive word box. Why you ask?
We get so used to hiding ourselves away and saying "I'm just stressed" or "I'm just tired" that we lose the ability to really relay how we feel. You must become comfortable using emotive words and most importantly recognising them!
The next section aims at reminding yourself of those primary fears and hopes, pull back your day and look at those core aspects of your life. Remind yourself of these things and you can better navigate through your stress and ground yourself.
The Nitty Gritty
The last section on this page is built up of checkboxes you simply need to tick. Easy.
Look at your day strategically and get used to keeping track of sleep or exercise to understand if there is a pattern in behaviour. Boiling down primary concerns allows you to sift through the haze of noise that surrounds them and instead simply acknowledge that those areas of your life are a bother.
Be Practical!
Investigate who you’ve seen, where you have been and what you have done.
You don’t have to go into great detail or bare your soul, quickly split out your day and how they made you feel. Referring back to the emotion box or rating your experience out of 10 (be honest, get used to those emotive words). You should be able to backtrack after a period of time and see if these feelings associated with places or people are a common recurrence and maybe then see if these areas can be improved in any way.
By the end of these entries, you will have allowed yourself to come to terms with not only how you are emotively feeling but also apply some control and context to these areas of your life and feel as though you have a clearer mind to address them.
Back to Basics!
After each entry 2 pages of lined and dated paper to follow. You may wonder why if you’ve already completed the sections?
Somedays you may have more to say.
Notes to take.
Things to remember.
Areas of revelation you want to explore further.
Practising free writing can add creativity to your day.
You can get your journal now in a colour of your choice with free UK delivery.
Everyone is trying hard to talk more about mental health, so keep talking 😊 and for more on the Discovery Journal, you can try our Instagram or Facebook Page.